A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. The three surviving species of camel are the dromedary, or one-humped camel (C. dromedarius), which inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of Africa; the Bactrian, or two-humped camel (C. bactrianus), which inhabits Central Asia; and the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel (C. ferus) that has limited populations in remote areas of northwest China and Mongolia. Bactrian camels got its name based on a region called Bactriana located in Asia (Yam & Khomeiri, 2015).[3] Both the dromedary and the Bactrian camels have been domesticated; they provide milk, meat, hair for textiles or goods such as felted pouches, and are working animals with tasks ranging from human transport to bearing loads.

"Camel" is also used more broadly to describe any of the seven camel-like mammals in the family Camelidae: the three true camels and the four New World camelids: the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña of South America.[6][7]The majority of camel’s populations which approximately 94% are the dromedary camels or the one humped camels while the Bactrian camels or the tow humped camels were around 6% of the overall camel’s populations (Yam & Khomeiri, 2015)[8]

Biology

The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years.[9][10] A full-grown adult camel stands 1.85m (6ft 1in) at the shoulder and 2.15m (7ft 1in) at the hump.[11] Camels can run at up to 65km/h (40mph) in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40km/h (25mph).[12] Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000kg (660 to 2,200lb) and dromedaries 300 to 600kg (660 to 1,320lb).For instance, the average speed for the one humped camel is about 40 km/hour while the tow humped camel has around 27.2 km/hour (Yam & Khomeiri, 2015).[13]

The male dromedary camel has in its throat an organ called a dulla, a large, inflatable sac he extrudes from his mouth when in rut to assert dominance and attract females. It resembles a long, swollen, pink tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth.[14] Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind.[15] The male usually ejaculates three or four times within a single mating session.[16] Camelids are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.[17]

Ecological and behavioral adaptations

Camels do not directly store water in their humps as was once commonly believed. The humps are actually reservoirs of fatty tissue: concentrating body fat in their humps minimizes the insulating effect fat would have if distributed over the rest of their bodies, helping camels survive in hot climates.[18][19] In hot and dry environments, within 8 to 10 days only the dromedary camels might consume water which during this period the third of their body's weight may be reduced due to the dehydration (Breulmann, et al., 2007).[20] When this tissue is metabolized, it yields more than one gram of water for every gram of fat processed. This fat metabolization, while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during respiration (as oxygen is required for the metabolic process): overall, there is a net decrease in water.[21][22]

A camel's thick coat is one of its many adaptations that aid it in desert-like conditions.

Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water.[19] Unlike other mammals, their red blood cells are oval rather than circular in shape. This facilitates the flow of red blood cells during dehydration[24] and makes them better at withstanding high osmotic variation without rupturing when drinking large amounts of water: a 600kg (1,300lb) camel can drink 200L (53USgal) of water in three minutes.[25][26]

Camels are able to withstand changes in body temperature and water consumption that would kill most other animals. Their temperature ranges from 34°C (93°F) at dawn and steadily increases to 40°C (104°F) by sunset, before they cool off at night again.[19] In general, to compare between camels and the other livestock, camels lose only 1.3 liters of fluid intake every day while the other livestock lose 20 to 40 liters per day (Breulmann, et al., 2007)[27] Maintaining the brain temperature within certain limits is critical for animals; to assist this, camels have a rete mirabile, a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other which utilizes countercurrent blood flow to cool blood flowing to the brain.[28] Camels rarely sweat, even when ambient temperatures reach 49°C (120°F).[9] Any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat; the heat of vaporization therefore comes from body heat rather than ambient heat. Camels can withstand losing 25% of their body weight to sweating, whereas most other mammals can withstand only about 12–14% dehydration before cardiac failure results from circulatory disturbance.[26]

When the camel exhales, water vapor becomes trapped in their nostrils and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water.[29] Camels eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies' hydrated state without the need for drinking.[30]

Domesticated camel calves lying in sternal recumbency, a position that aids heat loss

The camels' thick coats insulate them from the intense heat radiated from desert sand; a shorn camel must sweat 50% more to avoid overheating.[31] During the summer the coat becomes lighter in color, reflecting light as well as helping avoid sunburn.[26] The camel's long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to 70°C (158°F).[32][33] The two humped camels classified as bigger than the dromedary camels and for this reason, the skin became significantly more helpful for usage as wool and leather (Yam & Khomeiri, 2015).[34] Dromedaries have a pad of thick tissue over the sternum called the pedestal. When the animal lies down in a sternal recumbent position, the pedestal raises the body from the hot surface and allows cooling air to pass under the body.[28]

Camels' mouths have a thick leathery lining, allowing them to chew thorny desert plants. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with nostrils that can close, form a barrier against sand. If sand gets lodged in their eyes, they can dislodge it using their transparent third eyelid. The camels' gait and widened feet help them move without sinking into the sand.[32][35][36]

The kidneys and intestines of a camel are very efficient at reabsorbing water. Camel urine comes out as a thick syrup, and camel feces are so dry that they do not require drying when the Bedouins use them to fuel fires.[37][38][39][40] The camels are able to live in difficult conditions without drinking water due to their ability to produce small and pretty dry droppings as well as they use the water to maintain their body’s temperature to fit with the region surrounding them (Breulmann, et al., 2007). [41]

Camels' immune system differs from those of other mammals. Normally, the Y-shaped antibody molecules consist of two heavy (or long) chains along the length of the Y, and two light (or short) chains at each tip of the Y. Camels, in addition to these, also have antibodies made of only two heavy chains, a trait that makes them smaller and more durable. These "heavy-chain-only" antibodies, discovered in 1993, are thought to have developed 50million years ago, after camelids split from ruminants and pigs.[42]

Genetics

The karyotypes of different camelid species have been studied earlier by many groups,[43][44][45][46][47][48] but no agreement on chromosome nomenclature of camelids has been reached. A 2007 study flow sorted camel chromosomes, building on the fact that camels have 37 pairs of chromosomes (2n=74), and found that the karyotime consisted of one metacentric, three submetacentric, and 32 acrocentric autosomes. The Y is a small metacentric chromosome, while the X is a large metacentric chromosome.[49]

The hybrid camel, a hybrid between Bactrian and dromedary camels, has one hump, though it has an indentation 4–12cm (1.6–4.7in) deep that divides the front from the back. The hybrid is 2.15m (7ft 1in) at the shoulder and 2.32m (7ft 7in) tall at the hump. It weighs an average of 650kg (1,430lb) and can carry around 400 to 450kg (880 to 990lb), which is more than either the dromedary or Bactrian can.[50]

According to molecular data, the New World and Old World camelids diverged 11 million years ago.[51] In spite of this, these species can still hybridize and produce fertile offspring.[52] The cama is a camel–llama hybrid bred by scientists who wanted to see how closely related the parent species were.[53] Scientists collected semen from a camel via an artificial vagina and inseminated a llama after stimulating ovulation with gonadotrophin injections.[54] The cama has ears halfway between the length of camel and llama ears, no hump, longer legs than the llama, and partially cloven hooves.[55][56] According to cama breeder Lulu Skidmore, cama have "the fleece of the llamas" and "the strength and patience of the camel".[54] Like the mule, camas are sterile, despite both parents having the same number of chromosomes.[54] The wild (Camelus ferus) camels are slightly close of both kinds of the dromedary camels and the Bactrian camels but they changed and separate from the Bactrian camels almost 1,000,000 years ago (Plasil, et al., 2016).[57]

Evolution

The earliest known camel, called Protylopus, lived in North America 40 to 50 million years ago (during the Eocene).[16] It was about the size of a rabbit and lived in the open woodlands of what is now South Dakota.[58][59] By 35 million years ago, the Poebrotherium was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas.[60][61] The hoofed Stenomylus, which walked on the tips of its toes, also existed around this time, and the long-necked Aepycamelus evolved in the Miocene.[62]

The direct ancestor of all modern camels, Procamelus, existed in the upper Miocene and lower Pliocene.[63] Around 3–5 million years ago, the North American Camelidae spread to South America via the Isthmus of Panama, where they gave rise to guanacos and related animals, and to Asia via the Bering land bridge.[16][58][59] Surprising finds of fossil Paracamelus on Ellesmere Island beginning in 2006 in the high Canadian Arctic indicate the dromedary is descended from a larger, boreal browser whose hump may have evolved as an adaptation in a cold climate.[64][65] This creature is estimated to have stood around nine feet tall.[66]

Domestication

Like the horse, before their extinction in their native land, camels spread across the Bering land bridge, moving the opposite direction from the Asian immigration to America, to survive in the Old World and eventually be domesticated and spread globally by humans.
Most camels surviving today are domesticated.[40][69] Along with many other megafauna in North America, the original wild camels were wiped out during the spread of Native Americans from Asia into North America, 12,000 to 10,000 years ago.[67][68] Although feral populations exist in Australia, India and Kazakhstan, the only wild camels left are the wild Bactrian camels of the Gobi Desert.[10]

Dromedaries may have first been domesticated by humans in Somalia and southern Arabia, around 3,000 BC, the Bactrian in central Asia around 2,500 BC,[16][70][71][72] as at Shar-i Sokhta (also known as the Burnt City), Iran.[73] In Arabian countries, they are also interested in the camel competition to promote racing camel breeds as well as it has a very high socio-economic value for both Arabian and African countries (Yam & Khomeiri, 2015) [74]

Discussions concerning camel domestication in Mesopotamia are often related to mentions of camels in the Hebrew Bible. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J for instance mentions that "In accord with patriarchal traditions, cylinder seals from Middle Bronze Age Mesopotamia showed riders seated upon camels."[75][76]

Martin Heide's 2010 work on the domestication of the camel tentatively concludes that the bactrian camel was domesticated by at least the middle of the third millennium somewhere east of the Zagros Mountains, then moving into Mesopotamia, and suggests that mentions of camels "in the patriarchal narratives may refer, at least in some places, to the Bactrian camel." while noting that the camel is not mentioned in relationship to Canaan.[77]

Recent excavations in the Timna Valley by Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef discovered what may be the earliest domestic camel bones found in Israel or even outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BC. This garnered considerable media coverage as it was described as evidence that the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Jacob and Esau were written after this time.[78][79]

The existence of camels in Mesopotamia but not in Israel is not a new idea. According to an article in Time Magazine, the historian Richard Bulliet wrote in his 1975 book "The Camel and the Wheel" that "the occasional mention of camels in patriarchal narratives does not mean that the domestic camels were common in the Holy Land at that period."[80] The archaeologist William F. Albright writing even earlier saw camels in the Bible as an anachronism.[81]
The official report by Sapir-Hen and Ben-Joseph notes that "The introduction of the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) as a pack animal to the southern Levant signifies a crucial juncture in the history of the region; it substantially facilitated trade across the vast deserts of Arabia, promoting both economic and social change (e.g., Kohler 1984; Borowski 1998: 112-116; Jasmin 2005). This, together with the depiction of camels in the Patriarchal narrative, has generated extensive discussion regarding the date of the earliest domestic camel in the southern Levant (and beyond) (e.g., Albright 1949: 207; Epstein 1971: 558-584; Bulliet 1975; Zarins 1989; Köhler-Rollefson 1993; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2002; Jasmin 2005; 2006; Heide 2010; Rosen and Saidel 2010; Grigson 2012). Most scholars today agree that the dromedary was exploited as a pack animal sometime in the early Iron Age (not before the 12th century BCE)" and concludes that "Current data from copper smelting sites of the Aravah Valley enable us to pinpoint the introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant more precisely based on stratigraphic contexts associated with an extensive suite of radiocarbon dates. The data indicate that this event occurred not earlier than the last third of the 10th century BCE and most probably during this time. The coincidence of this event with a major reorganization of the copper industry of the region—attributed to the results of the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I—raises the possibility that the two were connected, and that camels were introduced as part of the efforts to improve efficiency by facilitating trade."[79]

Military uses

A special BSF Camel contingent during the annual Republic Day Parade in India.

British Imperial Camel Corps Brigade in Egypt.

By at least 1200 BC, the first camel saddles had appeared, and Bactrian camels could be ridden. The first saddle was positioned to the back of the camel, and control of the Bactrian camel was exercised by means of a stick. However, between 500–100 BC, Bactrian camels attained military use. New saddles, which were inflexible and bent, were put over the humps and divided the rider's weight over the animal. In the seventh century BC, the military Arabian saddle appeared, which improved the saddle design again slightly.[82]

France created a méhariste camel corps in 1912 as part of the Armée d'Afrique in the Sahara[93] in order to exercise greater control over the camel-riding Tuareg and Arab insurgents, as previous efforts to defeat them on foot had failed.[94] The camel-mounted units remained in service until the end of French rule over Algeria in 1962.[95]

In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps. It was originally used to fight the Senussi, but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements, and was formally disbanded in 1919.[96]

In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels. The Corps supported British war operations in Sinai, Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.[97][98][99]

The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment of Sahrawi tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara). Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.[103][104]

Food uses

Dairy

Camel calf feeding on its mother's milk

Camel milk is a staple food of desert nomad tribes and is sometimes considered a meal in and of itself; a nomad can live on only camel milk for almost a month.[17][37][105][106] Camel milk is rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, and immunoglobulins;[107] compared to cow's milk, it is lower in fat and lactose,[108] and higher in potassium, iron, and vitamin C.[11] Bedouins believe the curative powers of camel milk are enhanced if the camel's diet consists of certain desert plants.[17][109] Camel milk can readily be made into a drinkable yogurt, as well as butter or cheese, though the yields for cheese tend to be low.[17][108]

Camel milk cannot be made into butter by the traditional churning method. It can be made if it is soured first, churned, and a clarifying agent is then added.[17] Until recently, camel milk could not be made into camel cheese because rennet was unable to coagulate the milk proteins to allow the collection of curds.[110] Developing less wasteful uses of the milk, the FAO commissioned Professor J.P. Ramet of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires, who was able to produce curdling by the addition of calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet.[108] The cheese produced from this process has low levels of cholesterol and is easy to digest, even for the lactose intolerant.[111][112] The sale of camel cheese is limited owing to the small output of the few dairies producing camel cheese and the absence of camel cheese in local (West African) markets.[108] Cheese imports from countries that traditionally breed camels are difficult to obtain due to restrictions on dairy imports from these regions.[113]

Meat

Camels are the ultimate pillars that support national economies of many developing countries, because they are useful for transport, and provide food in the form of meat and milk (Tariq et al.,2010). [115] A camel carcass can provide a substantial amount of meat. The male dromedary carcass can weigh 300–400kg (661–882lb), while the carcass of a male Bactrian can weigh up to 650kg (1,433lb). The carcass of a female dromedary weighs less than the male, ranging between 250 and 350kg (550 and 770lb).[16] The brisket, ribs and loin are among the preferred parts, and the hump is considered a delicacy.[116] The hump contains "white and sickly fat", which can be used to make the khli (preserved meat) of mutton, beef, or camel.[117] On the other hand, camel milk and meat are rich in protein, vitamins, glycogen, and other nutrients making them essential in the diet of many people. The two common camel species are Dromedary and Bactrian. From chemical composition to meat quality, the dromedary camel is the preferred breed for meat production. It does well even in arid areas due to its unusual physiological behaviors and characteristics, which include tolerance to extreme temperatures, radiation from the sun, water paucity, rugged landscape and low vegetation (Aleme, 2013).[118] Camel meat is reported to taste like coarse beef, but older camels can prove to be very tough,[11][16] although camel meat becomes more tender the more it is cooked.[119] The Abu Dhabi Officers' Club serves a camel burger mixed with beef or lamb fat in order to improve the texture and taste.[120] In Karachi, Pakistan, some restaurants prepare nihari from camel meat.[121] In Syria and Egypt, there are specialist camel butchers.[122]

Religion

Islam

Camel meat is halal for Muslims. However, according to some Islamic schools of thought, a state of impurity is brought on by the consumption of it. Consequently, these schools hold that Muslims must perform wudhu (ablution) before the next time they pray after eating camel meat.[126]

Also, some Islamic schools of thought consider it haraam for a Muslim to perform salat in places where camels lie, as it is said to be a dwelling place of shaytan.[126]

Camel urine is sold as traditional medicine in shops in Saudi Arabia.[134][135][136][137][138][139] The Sunni scholar Muhammad Al-Munajjid's IslamQA.info recommends camel urine as beneficial to curing certain diseases and to human health and cited Ahadith and scientific studies as justification.[140][141][142][143] King Abdulaziz University researcher Dr. Faten Abdel-Rajman Khorshid has claimed that cancer and other diseases could be treated with camel urine as recommended by the Prophet.[144][145][146][147][148][149] It is believed to combat cancer by King Abdulaziz University staff and serves as medicine and shampoo.[150] The United Arab Emirates "Arab Science and Technology Foundation" reported that cancer could be treated with camel urine.[151][152] Camel urine was also prescribed as a treatment by Zaghloul El-Naggar, a religious scholar.[153][154] Camel urine is the only urine which is permitted to be drunk according to the Hanbali madhhab of Sunni Islam.[155] The World Health Organization said that camel urine consumption may be a factor in the spread of the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia.[156][157][158][159][160][161][162] The Gulf Times writer Ahmad al-Sayyed wrote that various afflictions are dealt with camel urine by people.[163] Camel urine was used to clean hair by Bedouin.[164] Dandruff, scalp ailments, hair, sores, and wounds were recommended to be treated with camel urine by Ibn Sina.[165] Arab American University Professor of Cell Biology and Immunology Bashar Saad (PhD) along with Omar Said (PhD) wrote that medicinal use of camel urine is approved of and promoted by Islam since it was recommended by the prophet.[166] A test on mice found that cytotoxic effects similar to cyclophosphamide were induced on bone marrow by camel urine.[167] Besides for consumption as a medicinal drink, camel urine is believed to help treat hair.[168][169] Bites from insects were warded off with camel urine, which also served as a shampoo.[170] Camel urine is also used to help treat asthma, infections, treat hair, sores, hair growth and boost libido.[171][172]

Some Shia criticized Wahhabis for camel urine treatment.[178][179] Shia scholars also recommend the medicinal use of camel urine.[180][181] Shia Hadith on Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq reported that shortness of breath (asthma) was treated with camel urine.[182][183][184] Shia Marja Ayatollah Sistani said that for medicinal purposes only, sheep, cow, and camel urine can be drunk.[185]

The Bactrian camel is, as of 2010, reduced to an estimated 1.4million animals, most of which are domesticated.[40][189][193] The only truly wild (as opposed to feral) camel is the wild Bactrian camel, which number approximately 1400, which inhabits the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in China and Mongolia.[10][194]

The largest population of feral camels is in Australia. There are around 700,000 feral dromedary camels in central parts of Australia, descended from those introduced as a method of transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries.[124][189][195] This population is growing about 8% per year.[196] Representatives of the Australian government have culled more than 100,000 of the animals in part because the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.[197]

A small population of introduced camels, dromedaries and Bactrians, wandered through Southwest United States after having been imported in the 1800s as part of the U.S. Camel Corps experiment. When the project ended, they were used as draft animals in mines and escaped or were released. Twenty-five U.S. camels were bought and imported to Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush.[87]

↑ Abu-Zidana, Fikri M.; Eida, Hani O.; Hefnya, Ashraf F.; Bashira, Masoud O.; Branickia, Frank (18 December 2011). "Camel bite injuries in United Arab Emirates: A 6 year prospective study". Injury. 43 (9): 1617–1620. doi:10.1016/j.injury.2011.10.039. PMID22186231. The male mature camel has a specialized inflatable diverticulum of the soft palate called the "Dulla". and During rutting the Dulla enlarges on filling with air from the trachea until it hangs out of the mouth of the camel and comes to resemble a pink ball. This occurs in only the one-humped camel. Copious saliva turns to foam covering the mouth as the male gurgles and makes metallic sounds. [6 cites to 5 references omitted]

↑ Schmidt-Nielsen, K. (1964). Desert Animals: Physiological Problems of Heat and Water. New York: Oxford University Press. Cited in "Coat of fur on the camel". Temperature and Water Relations in Dromedary Camels (Camelus dromedarius). Davidson College. Archived from the original on February 25, 2003.

↑ Scarre, Chris (15 September 1993). Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World. London: D. Kindersley. p.176. ISBN978-1-56458-305-5. Both the dromedary (the seven-humped camel of Arabia) and the Bactrian camel (the two-humped camel of Central Asia) had been domesticated since before 2000 BC.

↑ Bulliet, Richard (20 May 1990) [1975]. The Camel and the Wheel. Morningside Book Series. Columbia University Press. p.183. ISBN978-0-231-07235-9. As has already been mentioned, this type of utilization [camels pulling wagons] goes back to the earliest known period of two-humped camel domestication in the third millennium B.C.—Note that Bulliet has many more references to early use of camels

↑ Gann, Lewis Henry; Duignan, Peter (1972). Africa and the World: An Introduction to the History of Sub-Saharan Africa from Antiquity to 1840. University Press of America. p.156. ISBN9780761815204. The camel was acclimatized in Egypt long before the time of Christ and was subsequently adopted by the Berbers of the desert, who used camel cavalry to fight the Romans. The Berbers spread the use of the camel across the Sahara.

↑ Fleming, Walter L. (February 1909). "Jefferson Davis's Camel Experiment". The Popular Science Monthly. 74 (8). Bonnier Corporation. p.150. ISSN0161-7370. Other trials of the camel were made in 1859 by Major D. H. Vinton, who used twenty-four of them in carrying burdens for a surveying party...All in all, he concluded, the camel was much superior to the mule.

↑ Southern, Pat (1 October 2007). The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History. Oxford University Press. p.123. ISBN9780195328783.

↑ Nicolle, David (26 March 1991). The Desert Frontier. Rome's Enemies. 5 (illustrated, reprint ed.). Osprey Publishing. p.4. ISBN9781855321663. Nevertheless the military prowess of desert peoples impressed the Romans, who recruited large numbers as auxiliary cavalry and archers. In addition to providing the Roman Army with its best archers, the Easterners (largely Arabs but generally known as 'Syrians') served as Rome's most effective dromedarii or camel-mounted troops.

↑ Herodotus (440BC). The History of Herodotus. Rawlinson, George (trans.). Retrieved 4 December 2012. He collected together all the camels that had come in the train of his army to carry the provisions and the baggage, and taking off their loads, he mounted riders upon them accoutred as horsemen. These he commanded to advance in front of his other troops against the Lydian horse; behind them were to follow the foot soldiers, and last of all the cavalry. When his arrangements were complete, he gave his troops orders to slay all the other Lydians who came in their way without mercy, but to spare Croesus and not kill him, even if he should be seized and offer resistance. The reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to the enemy's horse was because the horse has a natural dread of the camel, and cannot abide either the sight or the smell of that animal. By this stratagem he hoped to make Croesus's horse useless to him, the horse being what he chiefly depended on for victory. The two armies then joined battle, and immediately the Lydian war-horses, seeing and smelling the camels, turned round and galloped off; and so it came to pass that all Croesus's hopes withered away.

↑ "Cameliers and camels at war". New Zealand History online. History Group of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 30 August 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2012.

↑ Yagil. Milk Products and Their Uses. The belief among the Bedouin of the Sinai Peninsula, is that any internal disease can be cured by drinking camel milk. The milk is said to be of such a strength, and to have such health-giving properties, that all the bacteria are driven from the body. This said to be true only for camels that eat certain shrubs and bushes. The shrubs and bushes are, themselves, used in the preparation of medicines. However, camels which eat straw are said to lose this ability.

↑ Aleme, A., D., 2013. A Review of Camel Meat as a Precious Source of Nutrition in some part of Ethiopia. Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology Research. Vol. 1, No. 4, December 2013, PP: 40-43. Available online at http://asetr.org/.

↑ Rubenstein, Dustin (23 July 2010). "How to Cook Camel". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 December 2012. He cut the pieces very small and cooked them for a long time. I decided to try something a bit different the following night and cut the pieces a bit bigger and cooked them for less time, as I like my meat rarer than he does. This was a bad idea. It seems that the more you cook camel, the more tender it becomes. So we had what amounted to two pounds or more of rubber for dinner that night.

↑ Arthur, Rick (4 January 2012). "The Instant Expert: camels, the ships of the desert". The National. UAE: Abu Dhabi Media. As the meat can be dry, however, the Abu Dhabi Officer's Club, for one, serves camel burger with beef or lamb fat mixed in, improving texture and taste.

1 2 "Book 1, Number 0184". Purification (Kitab Al-Taharah). Partial Translation of Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 1. Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Narrated Al-Bara' ibn Azib: The Messenger of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) was asked about performing ablution after eating the flesh of the camel. He replied: Perform ablution, after eating it. He was asked about performing ablution after eating meat. He replied: Do not perform ablution after eating it. He was asked about saying prayer in places where the camels lie down. He replied: Do not offer prayer in places where the camels lie down. These are the places of Satan. He was asked about saying prayer in the sheepfolds. He replied: You may offer prayer in such places; these are the places of blessing.

↑ "Punishment of Disbelievers at War with Allah and His Apostle: Volume 8, Book 82, Hadith 794". Sahih Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan.

↑ "The Book Pertaining to the Oath, for Establishing the Responsibility of Murders, Fighting, Requital Book 16 Number 4130–4132". Sahih Muslim. Translated by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui.

↑ Farah, K. O.; Nyariki, D. M.; Ngugi, R. K.; Noor, I. M.; Guliye, A. Y. (2004). "The Somali and the Camel: Ecology, Management and Economics". Anthropologist. 6 (1): 45–55. Somali pastoralists are a camel community...There is no other community in the world where the camel plays such a pivotal role in the local economy and culture as in the Somali community. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 1979) estimates, there are approximately 15 million dromedary camels in the worldPlain text version.

Further reading

Gilchrist, W. (1851). A Practical Treatise on the Treatment of the Diseases of the Elephant, Camel & Horned Cattle: with instructions for improving their efficiency; also, a description of the medicines used in the treatment of their diseases; and a general outline of their anatomy'. Calcutta: Military Orphan Press.